County digs into fund balance’ to pass $61M budget

By Lindsay Street

The Independent

Monday, July 28, 2014

Berkeley County Council has passed its budget for the current fiscal year after months of wrangling and a slew of last-minute amendments that, in the words of one councilman, “dig into the fund balance.”

The $61 million budget is a 0.5 percent increase over last year’s $58 million budget, and reflects an increase in projected revenue. The tax bill won’t look any different from the previous year because of the budget, according to county Real Property Director Wilson Baggett.

The budget passed without dissent but with 11 amendments during Monday’s regular meeting of council. Last year, it took until September for the council to pass the $58-million budget. The fiscal year closed at the end of June without a new budget after council deferred it during the June 23 meeting.

This year’s amendments included:

• Eliminating debt owed to the county by Cypress Gardens

• Using accommodation fee fund to pay for a $25,000 marketing campaign for Cypress Gardens as a wedding venue

• Changing the overtime policy to time-and-a-half for detention center employees to the tune of $435,000 out of the fund balance

• Purchasing 15 law enforcement replacement vehicles at $571,000 out of the contingency fund

• Using $115k from the fund balance for contribution to retirement fund that has run into deficit

The only amendment proposed that did not pass was an immediate 3 percent merit raise for county employees. Councilman Caldwell Pinckney made the amendment and pointed to all of the other amendments taking money from the fund balance.

“If we are going to dig into our fund balance, let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s give something to our employees,” Pinckney said. “Employees are the backbone of the county.”

After the amendment failed, Councilman Tim Callanan made an amendment that a merit raise be looked at after Jan. 1, 2015. That amendment passed.

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